Flash Your Own AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition VideoBIOS

There was much fuss about AMD’s new Radeon HD 7970 GHz or “Tahiti 2” video cards. The simple way to put is that the company couldn’t resist not taking advantage of Tahiti’s ability to achieve high clock frequencies. Therefore AMD, after first gaining the performance crown with Tahiti back in winter, decided to take the lead again, but without making much effort. The thing is that AMD is confident that most of the current Tahiti GPUs are able to safely reach 1050 MHz and that the memory is well within limits if clocked at 6000 MHz. There is no guarantee that the cards sold as the normal AMD Radeon HD 7970 until now will actually work at these frequencies, but most of the overclocking done over the past six months has proved...

Read more »

Mobile Intel Haswell Unveiled

World’s biggest semiconductor and CPU manufacturer, American-Israeli company Intel, is currently hard at work on their future generation of x86 processors codenamed Haswell. The company has made no secret that Haswell would have a huge iGPU and offer the according performance, but they seem to be much more careful about what happens in the mobile space. During this year’s Computex, AMD managed to spoil Intel’s UltraBook/Ivy Bridge party as the smaller, fabless CPU maker was able to offer much more capable Trinity CPUs with better power consumption than Intel Ivy Bridge was able to offer at the time. To have an APU that capable of delivering twice the 3D graphics performance and consume about 25% less than Intel’s competing...

Read more »

Philips W732 Smartphone with Android 4.0 ICS Coming Soon in China

Philips has just announced the upcoming availability of the W732 Android phone. This is a mid-range handset that will be released in China and Russia in the following weeks. There are no details on the phone’s price tag or availability, but we know Philips W732 will be launched in five color options: black, pink, white, green and blue. The good news is the smartphone is powered by Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and it offers dual-SIM capability, which is so much praised in emerging markets like China. Another selling point of the Philips W732 is the high-capacity 2,400 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated by the manufacturer for up to 13 hours of talk time or up to 10.5 hours of web browsing. Judging...

Read more »

Samsung Gets Ready Mobile Unpacked Event on August 30 for GALAXY Note 2

Rumors on the unannounced Samsung Galaxy Note 2 have come and gone, but the South Korean handset maker has yet to confirm the release of the smartphone. Given the fact that the latest hearsay points to a possible Q3/Q4 2012 launch for Galaxy Note 2, we expect Samsung to come forward with an official announcement at IFA 2012 trade fair, which is set to take place in Berlin, between August 31 and September 5. Rumor has it that Samsung is now planning a Mobile Unpacked event for August 30. There are no additional details on the event, but we suspect the South Korean company is ready to announce the Galaxy Note 2. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is said to feature a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen display with HD resolution,...

Read more »

Patriot Memory "Intel Extreme Masters" Limited Edition DDR3

Most RAM usually works with both Intel and AMD CPUs/APUs, but there are certain modules and kits made specifically for one or the other. Patriot has launched one such series of products, dubbed Extreme Masters Limited Edition DDR3. The RAM is meant for gaming machines with Intel 6 and 7 platforms. The modules are DIMM Type 240-Pin NON-ECC UDIMM and the dual-channel or quad-channel kits come in 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB capacities. We don't know the prices, but Patriot did mention that the frequencies are of 1,600 MHz, 1,866 MHz or 2,133 MHz. Finally, the RAM works on 1.5V and is XMP 1.3-certified (Extreme Memory Profile), hence its suitability for hardcore gaming rigs. Keep an eye on your local retailers if you...

Read more »

AMD Give Away, Hundreds of Trinity APUs at Comic-Con 2012

AMD is not content with Trinity’s current fame and popularity and it has just announced on one of the company’s blogs that it would be attending this year’s Comic-Con event in San Diego as well. There, the Texas-based fabless CPU and GPU designer will hand out “hundreds of APUs.” as reported by BrightSideofNews. AMD’s David Doel’s exact words were: “In addition to all of these games there will be lots of swag and grade ‘A’ goods being given out. Also, make sure to take the time and register to be part of AMD’s New Exclusive A-Series APU Product Review Program where we will be handing out hundreds of APUs in exchange for a simple tweet and feedback on the product at a later date.” The company will most likely hand out Trinity...

Read more »

Taobao Selling Unreleased iPhone 5 for 8599 Yuan / $1,349

Chinese online retailer Taobao is making headlines for selling the unconfirmed iPhone 5 from Apple complete with convincing mockups and a hefty price tag. Catching the attention of major media outlets, in the likes of Reuters, Taobao’s initiative undoubtedly is frowned upon in Cupertino where Tim Cook & Co. are preparing to unveil the much-hyped handset in the coming months. Taobao is selling the surreal phone for well over a thousand dollars, $1,349 to be precise, which translates into about €1,100. The original price is listed in the country’s official currency – 8599 Yuan. Taobao is not the first to attempt cashing in on the hype surrounding Apple’s unreleased smartphone. Earlier this week, we reported that Chinese...

Read more »

AVADirect “Supercomputer” with Dual-Xeon and 4-GPU

If you've been keeping up with our articles about supercomputers, you probably know about the newest Top500 list and how both Intel and AMD earned some recognition through it. What we are bringing you today is a different sort of supercomputer, one that does not need a huge area to exist or hundreds of CPUs and GPU accelerators. Instead, it is called a super computer because it is powerful enough to be considered “super” among its peers. AVADirect, the one who made the PC, chose not to give it a nice name for some reason. It felt satisfied with the DGS-XE5-SLICFX model code instead. Nevertheless, it did, at least, dub it a custom gaming system / workstation in its press release. The first thing to notice is the presence...

Read more »

AMD’s Kabini Processor Will Feature Newer Graphics than Richland APU

Most computer enthusiasts were speculating that AMD’s Richland APU would feature next-generation GCN graphics, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The company seems to be concentrating on developing the main desktop APU that will have to face Intel’s Haswell. The tablet/netbook/nettop APU line will have to wait. Richland has a very tough fight ahead of it. As we reported here, besides the improved x86 performance, Intel’s Haswell will feature impressive iGPU performance and good power consumption on every TDP level. AMD is doing quite fine in the tablet/netbook/nettop space. That’s Brazos’ realm. Intel’s Atom is miles behind in performance and especially in graphics capabilities, so the Texas-based fabless CPU and...

Read more »

MSI Teases Nvidia GTX680M in Famous GT70 Gaming Notebook

Well-known mainboard manufacturer MSI is also famous as the builder of the world’s fastest Ivy Bridge notebook. The company has just posted a new picture on its facebook page, but leaves it to the fans to deduce what’s in it. MSI is actually teasing the eager enthusiasts with the comment: “It's coming... My Weapon of Choice.” Questions are being asked and answers are anxiously awaited. We actually do have some answers and we can certainly say that the notebook in the picture is the famous GT70. As MSI’s GT70 gaming notebook has a unique design and internal features, we easily identified it by the two mSATA SSD’s that can be seen in the upper left corner of the picture sitting side by side. No other notebook has...

Read more »

Sony Xperia LT30p Mint Specs Detailed, Photo Samples Leak

There’s no doubt Japanese handset manufacturer Sony Mobile plans to release a new Android flagship smartphone by the end of the year. Since the first rumors on Sony’s Android roadmap for 2012 leaked online several months ago, the company managed to release most of the devices listed according to schedule. One of the intriguing devices that are part of Sony’s Xperia 2012 series is called LT30p Mint and is believed to be the company’s next top-tier Android phone. The good news is that more details on the phone’s specs sheet have just surfaced and though device seems to be impressive, it cannot challenge other smartphones that are already available on the market. Sony Xperia LT30p Mint is said to be equipped with a Qualcomm...

Read more »

Nokia Belle Phones Get Minor Software Update for “Upload to SkyDrive”

It looks like Nokia has just released a minor software update for Belle smartphones. Sadly, this is not the hotly anticipated Feature Pack 1, but a maintenance update, which brings a single new feature “Upload to SkyDrive.” We’re not sure if the small update is now available for download to all Nokia Belle smartphones, but there’s a high chance that all those who own such a device will be able to grab the update at some point. In order to download and install the 170kb update, simply check out “SW Update” section. If the update does not show yet, we recommend users to check back later as the software might be pushed in stages, so it might take a while until it reaches all regions. As we already mentioned earlier, this...

Read more »

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Three Different Layouts

Two weeks ago, Google made official the latest flavor of its Android operating system, namely 4.1 Jelly Bean, which comes with a nice range of enhancements over the previously released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The platform was announced in conjunction with the launch of the first tablet PC in Google’s Nexus series of devices, which should land on shelves under the name of Nexus 7. The first thing that strikes about the Nexus 7 tablet is the fact that its UI resembles a lot the one of Android smartphones, and less the one of larger tablet PCs. On this device, the homescreen exists in a vertical orientation, in portrait-style, ComputerWorld notes, adding that notifications are pulled down from the top of the screen,...

Read more »